I'd like to see some more science behind the claims about frequency responses of different types of wood. While they must resonate differently, I'm very skeptical of the claim that this leads to a qualitatively different sound.
edit: I will say there is an obvious influence of the wood type on the drums' response to temperature changes, and thus their tuning, so to the extent that that influences things, yes, there will be a difference. I'd like to see experiments controlling for all except wood type, however.
I am a former pro drummer (now a programmer which is why I hang out here)
The wood definitely matters. Beginner kits are usually made out of poplar and even with good heads and tuning they just sound bad compared to a kit made with a wood known to sound better. Maple and birch are quite popular, oak, bubinga, and ash all make appearances on high-end drum sets. I used to work in a music store and saw a lot of drum kits come through, and high-end kits even with the same heads and tuning as low end kits do just sound better.
Also, in the rest of musical instruments, particular woods are valued for their acoustic properties especially on string instruments. So I don’t think it is that far-fetched to say that it makes a difference in drums too, unless you also want to argue that an acoustic guitar made of particle board vs one made of maple are the same. (They do not sound the same at all)
I don’t think the shell material matters in most rock drumming.
If all your drums are wearing pinstripes and are covered in moongel, your bass drum has a duvet in it, everything is close-miced and heavily EQ’d, etc, I’ll bet there’s no discernible difference between exotic wood types, or even other shell materials.
Nobody can tell that Danny Carey’s shells are forged from melted down Paiste cymbals. After all is said and done, it sounds the same as his older bubinga kit.
Most of the sound is going to come from heads, tuning, technique, microphones, mixing, the room, etc.
Hell, I bet even the bearing edge accounts for more sonic difference than shell material.
This is semi-true. It all depends on what kind of music you are playing and how the kit is being mic'd. If you are close micing a kit. Then it really doesn't matter what the drums are made of. I have an old 1984 Tama kit with shit wood. But since I play rock and close mic it. It sounds great on recordings. Now the one thing you can't fix with close micing and EQ is your snare. No matter what I did I couldn't get any of my snares to sound good. I finally got a custom hammered brass snare and it made a HUGE difference. Now if I wanted to do rock but capture more of the drums natural sound. Like the low tones of the rack and floor toms or the front of a bass drum with no hole in the head. You really need to have drums with top notch wood. Plus you combine that with a good high ceiling room. You get some really nice sounding drums.
I'm not a drummer, but the ones that I know (some professional session musicians and audio engineers) seem to agree with you. It all comes down to heads and tension (and the person playing, of course).
However, I do wonder about snare drums. I've heard a few different Noble & Cooley snares in studio settings, and the wood vs metal definitely sounded a lot different. But they _did_ have different heads on them...
I've got two snares, an aluminum Acrolite and a steel unknown-origin snare, and the character of each is extremely different.
I ran sound for a band where my roommate played drums, and he had a Noble and Cooley snare. But not just any Noble and Cooley… he had one of the Zildjian bronze snares. Those are rare in part because they can crack… and I'll tell you, the backbeat on that thing could absolutely take your head clean off. Diabolical. I imagine that they're so scarce because they simply explode onstage, killing everyone :D
I see there's one on Reverb for sale. AS DESCRIBED (so, use your eyes to see if there's a crack because no backsies) and still, $5,577.75 and $272 just to ship it. I can well believe it.
Wood vs Metal snare drums sound way different even with the same heads on them. There is definitely a difference from the construction of the shell. (I left a comment higher up too but snare drums are just so obviously different based on the material)
I'm a drummer but not a gear head. Tuning matters more than type of wood (assuming we're not talking about other materials like metal or acrylic.) You can make pretty much any drum sound good if you put a decent set of heads on it and tune it right.
Very true (rookie drummer here). I find de-tuning also important, for example to obtain a fatter sound by having tuning pegs set in a slightly different way in order to create more harmonics and also dampening the natural resonance and reduce sustain. This is highly subjective though, as many drummers probably would aim to longer sustain and perfectly tuned pieces.
Yeah sometimes detuning one tension rod makes for a cool sound. My rough tuning pass is to crank the snare and tighten everything else until it just starts to resonate. Fine adjustments from there.
edit: I will say there is an obvious influence of the wood type on the drums' response to temperature changes, and thus their tuning, so to the extent that that influences things, yes, there will be a difference. I'd like to see experiments controlling for all except wood type, however.